Ballotin: The French Chocolate Buying and Selling Game Created by Ruth Paget
Game Background:
I was inspired to create a chocolate knowledge game after visiting the Swiss-German towns of New Glarus and Monroe during my Wisconsin 2026 vacation there.
The New Glarus Bakery sells homemade Swiss chocolates like truffles (truffes), which the French also make. This New Glarus outing reminded me of chocolate shops I have visited in Belgium and France when I lived in Europe in the 1990s.
When we lived in Paris, my husband Laurent and I routinely bought 1 kilo boxes of Belgian Leonidas chocolates (ballotins) to give as hostess gifts when we were invited to dinners along with bottles of champagne method Ackerman Crémant de la Loire from the region where Laurent’s maternal grandparents lived.
I thought then and still do that knowledge of chocolate can improve your lifestyle for buying the best quality chocolate you can afford and provide you with job skills for selling or buying chocolate as corporate gifts.
I named this chocolate game “ballotin” after the 1 kilo boxes of Leonidas chocolate I used to buy in Paris.
Ballotin Game Objective:
Learn vocabulary from the business of chocolate to obtain job skills needed to buy and sell chocolate for corporate gifts and improved quality of life.
Number of Players:
Unlimited.
This game promotes individual play to learn and then team play to test knowledge.
Materials Needed:
-The Great Book of Chocolate, Revised: The Chocolate Lover’s Guide with more than 50 Recipes by David Lebovitz (Available on Amazon Kindle)
-index cards
-pens
Method:
-Learn chocolate vocabulary words by topic area using definitions obtained from reading Lebovitz’s book.
-Quiz yourself on all topic words till you know them before moving on to the next topic area.
-Make one of three easier recipes, I have selected from Lebovitz’s book to get used to working with premium chocolate.
-Read Lebovitz’s book when you know all the chocolate vocabulary words and enjoy his travel log of Parisian chocolate shops, his account of studying chocolate at Le Nôtre in Paris, and his insider’s view of working for a Belgian chocolate shop during Christmas week.
The vocabulary words I have selected by topic follow:
Chocolate Business Vocabulary Words by Topic:
**What is Chocolate
-cacao tree and bean description
-name 11 varieties of cacao beans
**How Chocolate is Made
*Harvesting, Fermenting, and Drying Words
-mucilage
-de-seeding
-fermenting for chocolate
-drying for chocolate
*Roasting and Processing
-cacao
-cocoa
-roasting process for beans
-winnower
-nibs
-hull recycling use
-cocoa powder
*Crushing and Conching
-lecithin
-liquified chocolate
-concher
-cocoa butter
*Tempering
-sugar bloom
-gray streaks
-fat bloom
**Types of Chocolate
-semisweet and bitter sweet chocolate
-milk chocolate
-gianduja
-chocolate coating
-single-origin and cru chocolates
-white chocolate
-chocolate chips and chunks
-unsweetened chocolate
-ruby chocolate
-caramelized white chocolate
-unsweetened cocoa powder
-ground chocolate
**Shopping Terms and Tips
-truffes (truffles)
-bonbons
-pralinés
-feuilletine
-nougatine
-rochers
-ganache
-ballotin
-boîte
-chocolat noir
-chocolat au lait
-mélange
Recipes to Try:
-bouchons
-gâteau au chocolat
-white chocolate custard
Happy Gaming the Chocolate World!
Ballotin Game Created by Ruth Paget
-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe's Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games
-developer of food and beverage knowledge games
-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center
-creator of French travel and culture games
-writer of 1900+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs
-family genealogist
-developer of 9 music theory games
